Recently, many websites were flagging up redirect errors in the Google Search Console platform, and Google has now released a notice explaining the reason for these errors.
The search community received emails from Google Search Console to say that there were redirect errors on their websites, with one Twitter user saying:
What is a redirect error?
Heads-up, I'm seeing a big spike in redirect errors across sites in the Coverage reporting. Those redirects looks fine when analyzing them… Also, that coincides w/a crawl stats error for "Server Connectivity" across those sites impacted. I think Googlebot had too much eggnog 🙂 pic.twitter.com/PGY0EkLAcv
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 12, 2021
A redirect error is a technical issue that is related to redirects you may have on your site. Redirects allow you to redirect visitors from one page to the next – for example, you may use a redirect if the page has been removed and you want to redirect the URL to another live page with similar or related content.
There are two main redirect errors that can occur that can flag up on Google Search Console. These are:
1. Redirect chains – which is when a URL is redirected to another URL, and that URL redirects to another page. If this happens, it results in a bad user experience and can also affect the SEO (search engine optimisation) on your website, as it makes it harder for search engines like Google to crawl your website.
2. Redirect loop – this is when a URL redirects to another URL, which then redirects to the previous URL, this results in search engines not being able to see any content.
Google has now released a statement through its Google Search Central Twitter account:
An internal issue is causing an increase of redirect errors during indexing, and associated email notifications. This is not due to any website issues, but is due to an internal Google issue. We hope to fix this problem quickly.
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 13, 2021
To conclude, if you have recently seen this error in Google Search Console, there’s nothing to worry about, as this was an issue with Google’s crawlers, and not your own site.
At Engage Web, we offer search engine optimisation (SEO) services to businesses that want to improve their online presence by getting more website traffic. Find out more about our SEO services by speaking to our friendly team today.
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